Self-employed as a student sounds difficult: It sounds difficult to be a student and an entrepreneur at the same time, but that’s only partially. Because if you know the legal definitions and limits, BAföG will often continue to be paid.
Health insurance compulsory as an entrepreneur student?
Most of the students are usually family insured through their parents up to the age of 25 and are therefore not obliged to take out insurance themselves. If the student has been doing community service or military service in between, the maximum duration is extended by the number of years of service that have been performed.
According to Ezhoushan, a self-employed person, on the other hand, must always take out social insurance for himself ! But if he is not self-employed full-time, i.e. not more than 20 hours a week, then he does not have to take out insurance. Here it is important to know that if you do not inform the health insurance company in good time about the extent of self-employment, there is a risk that the family insurance will be terminated retrospectively.
In addition, no more than 385 euros per month may be earned (private income). Income tax law is decisive here. Anyone who is a partner and / or managing director of a corporation can get a monthly salary in the articles of association can be paid out and this does not exceed the stated amount of 385 euros. It is different with a sole proprietorship: He has to keep a close eye on his bookkeeping, because if there is a profit at the end of the year that exceeds EUR 4620 – than EUR 385 x 12 months – investments should be made quickly so that the profit is reduced. A partner in a partnership has it easier, because he can flexibly organize private withdrawals and thus always be below 385 euros.
Important to know: BAföG does not count towards total income, but the additional job subject to income tax does!
Self-employment is ideal if you want to carry out several jobs.
For a student who wants to carry out several jobs, self-employment is ideal, because this is where the contractor and client meet and the formal requirements of labor law hardly apply here. The self-employed student acts as a freelance entrepreneur and issues an invoice for the service he has provided. However, if you register your self-employment with the trade office as a student , there will initially be no changes in terms of your studies.
Important limit values that you need to know as a self-employed student:
- Trade tax from 24,500 euros
- Sales tax liability from EUR 16,620.00 in the current expected turnover in the following year of EUR 50,000.
- From a profit of 5,150 euros membership in the Chamber of Commerce
- Income tax from 7,235 euros
- Loss of family health insurance from 3,900 euros
- Loss of child benefit from 7,188 euros (including BAföG portion).
- Loss of BAföG from 4,227.36 euros
This shows that there is not that much leeway and that means either you earn a lot right away, so that the loss of child benefit does not matter, or you stick to the limit values and do not give anything away. Otherwise it can happen that in the end there is even less left over.
In addition, it should be noted that you are not considered to be an independent entrepreneur if you only work as a “one-man company” for a single client and this is where the word bogus self-employment comes into play.
Self-employed as a student: That must be taken into account.
In November 1999 the law on bogus self-employment was amended and you are now considered to be bogus self-employed if three of the five following criteria are met:
- You don’t enter the market as an entrepreneur, that means the entrepreneurial risk is shared. The decisions about investments etc. are made by the employer and you can be given price specifications and are otherwise “ordered around”.
- No employees with social insurance are employed.
- Mostly only one client is working.
- The work carried out at the client is usually carried out by employees.
- You were previously employed by the client in the same job (new!) .
